Barker’s Barkings.

Current mood: Okay.

Well, here it is, the second Christmas on this blog.

I guess that’s the sign I’m here at this address to stay, until I can find a better website, which I honestly doubt will happen.

So, this years haul was quite good, yet confusing.

Why is it confusing?

Because I got a CSI computer game, and I don’t understand why. I suppose I’ll give it a try, it just seems weird after telling my parents and my brother that I don’t play PC games very much any more (unless it’s MMOs), they decide to get me a PC game… a PC game for a show I don’t watch very much any more. Oh well.

I also happened to get a really, really nice sweater with the Barker University logo on it.. Kind of like the T-Shirt I got last year… I really like it, because its probably the first sweater that I’ll wear in a long time, because of the fact that the last sweater I got that I actually wanted to wear, was given to me by an ex (Jessica gave me a Notre Dame sweater..). I still wear it on occasion but, now that I’ve got this one, I will probably not wear my ND sweater very much anymore.

The coolest gift though, this year, happens to be the ‘big gift’ from my brother.

It’s not all that big per se, but I will tell you that it’s probably one of the nicest gifts I’ve gotten in a while as far as Christmas gifts go.

What is it?

A Transpo Crazies™ avoidant device… in short.

In long, my brother got me a set of incredibly nice headphones.

They’re flanged so that they absorb 99.995% of the noise thats surrounding me. I can’t hear my parents while they’re almost four feet away from me. If I can’t hear them with them on .. I know for a fact that I won’t hear the local Transpo Crazies™ for the entire 10-20 minute bus ride I have with my iRiver on.

I know for a fact that that if I can’t hear my parents four feet away from me, I know that I won’t be able to hear squat from the Transpo Crazies™.

My parents also just pulled me into the kitchen for two belated Christmas gifts that they happened to forget wrapping, so Mom, wrapped them, and handed them to me for unwrapping.

Pretty nice gifts they were actually.. both of them were books, but both of them were on my ‘to read’ list.

The first, is Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters.

My father has never read Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle Nest by Stephen E. Ambrose, which happens to be my absolute favorite history book, which is the main reason why I’m so into history now, the book I’ve mentioned, is as you may of guessed, a memoir of the lead commander of that regiment.

The second book, is The Life and times of the Thunderbolt Kid, another memoir, this one, by Bill Bryson. Bill Bryson wrote A Short History of Nearly Everything which is my favorite science book ever written.

Over all, Christmas was pretty good.. the only thing that I’m sort of upset about was the fact that when I called Brandy back after we were ‘done’ with our Christmas, she didn’t answer her cell phone. I guess she went to bed.

Oh well, you can’t win them all.

I had a pretty good Christmas, and I hope everyone who reads this blog had a great one too.

-A.

Current mood: Calm.

So here I am, in San Fransisco, watching my dad read on my brothers ubercomfortable chair, and watching my mom compose a list of whatever the list she’s writing is about.

Not much has been going on, I’ve been trying to stay out of my families way as usual, keeping quiet and playing my brother’s XBox 360. Right now Gears of War is paused because my brother and I are playing it co-opertavely. Suprisingly, this little session I’ve had with the 360 has shown me that it’s actually a really decent system. I might actually pick one up for Project Gotham Racing 3 and Forza Motor Sport 2 when it comes out. Other than that, we’re listening to mom’s iPod with christmas songs (right now it’s Christmas bells), and just relaxing.

One of the many cool things about my brothers appartment is that he has a table, like any other table, except for the fact his friends and he have drawn and doodled on it, and he encourages people to ‘make their mark’, so I’ve made mine ‘Andy was here.’ in red, and ‘XMas 06.’ in green, quite festive if I say so myself.

My father thought about taking me to see Alcatraz, but my brother said that it’s a bit of a tourist trap, so I think my dad has reconsidered.

On the upside of things, Brandy and I have talked almost every single day since my arrival here two days ago. I guess you could say that Brandy gave me my most used Christmas gift this year, unless my bro got me the headphones I’ve desperately been wanting/needing. Other than that, I’ve had a pretty small Christmas because most of my items were kitchen related merchandise, because my kitchen is in such shoddy shape.

I just thought it’d be nice to let everyone know what I’m doing while I’m here, and if anything supremely eventful happens, I’ll let everyone know.

Happy non-denominational holiday everyone!

-A.